


Oh lights go down; in the moment we're lost and found

by geeisajacketslut



Series: The Party Chronicles [3]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: AND PLAY BOARD GAMES, ELEVEN IS BODY GOALS, F/M, I CANT WRITE DESCRIPTIONS BUT THEY GO SWIMMING, M/M, Memories, Mileven, Multi, Party, Swimming, Underage Drinking, Winter, and make out, will is gay yes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 18:50:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8589697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geeisajacketslut/pseuds/geeisajacketslut
Summary: Eleven “El” Jane Byers walked through the halls of school with an air of confidence all the girls envied, and with a stride and swish of the hips that made every boy want into her pants. -Amy, a popular girl, has a winter party and El is so glad her group comes along with her. Lots of games, memories, and parties of their own.;song: wings - birdy





	

**Author's Note:**

> i spent over a week on this and i'm rly happy cause i was NOT proud of my first draft and spent a long time revising it and i'm vv proud of this. enjoy! 
> 
> also this is the longest one-shot i've ever written

Eleven “El” Jane Byers walked through the halls of school with an air of confidence all the girls envied, and with a stride and swish of the hips that made every boy want into her pants. El wasn’t popular (she had her small friend group and the boys), but she was known by everyone. No one knew about her powers; they just knew she grew up in a bad home with bad people, and she was now living with the Byers and was dating the tall, nerdy, Mike Wheeler. Even though El had a pretty broken childhood, she never showed it. She always showed up in nice outfits picked out by her friends and sometimes Nancy. Her hair was getting long (she’d been growing it out for four years) and sometimes she braided it or put it in a ponytail just because she could.

 

Of course, Eleven was oblivious to the many people that stared as she walked down the halls every day. She was polite to everyone who catcalled her (she didn’t understand why Mike didn’t like her to) and smiled at the girls who whispered about her. If Mike was with her, he would see this and walk them faster down the hall, getting to their next class fast.

 

Today Mike was not with her, they didn’t have every single class together anyway. Because of Mike’s high GPA, he got to have one less class on Wednesday afternoons (he had a choice between coming in an hour late or leaving an hour early), and he also always stayed late after class to speak to teachers about extra credit assignments. So, they didn’t walk together too much. Mike wanted to go to MIT and he knew he had to keep a high GPA. Eleven thought he worked too hard. El was at her locker grabbing her notebooks when someone called her name.

 

“Eleanor!” One of the popular girls named Amy yelled. She was in El’s English class and was always trying to get people to cheat for her. El turned around, unsure if they were talking to her, as her name wasn’t short for Eleanor. They motioned her over and she stopped by their lockers. They immediately stopped talking to focus on her.

 

“It’s actually just El.” She said when she made eye contact. The girls laughed. _“I didn’t think what I said was funny.”_ El subtlety shook her head in confusion.

 

“We wanna invite you Amy’s Winter Party! Her parents aren’t home and she’s hosting. She has a pool too so bring a swimsuit if you wanna swim.” Another girl squealed with a wink at the end. The girl was in El’s art class. Her name was Megan or Molly or something like that.

 

“Can I bring Mike?” El asked. The girls laughed again. The hallway was loud but the girls laughs still echoed through the halls.

 

“Of course! We loooove Mike Wheeler! You better come, El. We’ll leave the info in your locker. Bring _allllll_ your friends.” The Megan/Molly/something girl said.

 

“Shut up _Mira_! We don’t want _everyoneeee_ to come.” Mira. That was her name. They laughed once again. Eleven was extremely confused as to why they kept laughing.

 

But as soon as it started, they all quickly broke apart, shutting their lockers fast and leaving El happy. She looked down at the invitation they had shoved in her hand and she unzipped her purse and put it in. She walked back over to her locker and finished packing up, then she went outside to wait for Will to drop her off Mike’s house, just like every Wednesday.

 

~

 

“Mike, Mike, Mike!” El tried to whisper, but it came out as a slightly-louder-than-normal tone. Mike was home early and taking a nap to make up for his major sleep deprivation, but he was soon woken up by El jumping on his bed.

 

“Whatttt?” He asked groggily. He squinted his eyes and saw El on his lap holding something in his face. He awkwardly cleared his throat and sat up so she could sit on the bed. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek. He blushed.

 

“WE GOT INVITED TO A PARTY!” She squealed. She thrust the multicolored invitation into his hand. Mike got nervous. He wasn’t a huge fan of parties, especially parties run by popular girls. He didn’t wanna tell El to her face that she couldn’t go, but sadly it had to be done.

 

“I don’t know, El, it seems kinda sketchy…” Mike started, he didn’t look at her at first but when he did El gave the biggest puppy dog eyes she could do. Mike groaned. He always gave in.

 

“Fine, ask Joyce, it’s up to her. I doubt Will is gonna wanna go but Lucas and Dustin are gonna have aneurysms.” El jumped up and down.

 

“Ah! Thank you thank you thank you! I’ll make us pancakes to celebrate!” El quickly ran downstairs, probably to call the boys instead of cooking. She had gotten pretty good at being, well, normal. She saw a speech counselor once a week, Joyce taught her how to cook, and Nancy taught her how to dress. Mike fixed his hair in the mirror before going downstairs to help.

 

~

 

The night of the party was exciting. Joyce was ecstatic that Eleven was making friends. While El got ready, Dustin, Lucas, and Mike biked over. El had invited over some girl friends to get ready with. They all had on similar looking outfits of their nicest ripped jeans and t-shirts. When they rang the doorbell, Joyce nearly tackled them. Now that the boys could drive, nobody hung out at parent’s houses anymore, they hung out at random spots around Hawkins.

 

“Boysss!” Joyce squealed (Mike was always confused as to why girls were squealing). “El is in her room with Mariana and Kimberly and Jessica.” Hearing their girlfriend’s names, Dustin and Lucas’ hands flew to their hair, making sure it looked good. Dustin was dating another girl, Kimberly, but Lucas and Mariana had been going strong since Mike’s fifteenth birthday party. Mike stopped by Will’s room and said a quick hello. Will and Carter were playing poker on Will’s bed. He continued walking down the hall, not even stopping to glance at the permanent stain on the carpet the Demogorgon had made. El’s room was a little addition off the house that was paid for by the Department of Energy and had furniture donated from the police department. It wasn’t too nice, but El loved it.

 

Mike knocked twice and only turned the knob when he heard a chorus of “Come in’s”. El stood up first and pulled him into a hug. The three girls sat there awkwardly.

 

“You know, Dustin and Lucas are in the kitchen if you-“ Mike was cut off by them quickly running to see their respective boyfriend. Jessica sat awkwardly on the bed. She wasn’t big on dating according to El. Mike guessed she was probably super religious.

 

“Jessica, can we have a quick minute? Well be leaving soon anyway.” Jessica stood up and smoothed out her skirt before walking out and closing the door behind them. Eleven locked it and faced him.

 

“Everything okay?” Mike asked. Eleven nodded and kissed him. Mike smiled and pulled her closer.

 

He pulled away and said, “you look beautiful.” She was wearing a black skirt and a pastel pink sweater that dipped too low for Hopper’s approval (but luckily, he was working late that night). She smiled and put her arms around his neck. At one point, he pulled them onto El’s tiny bed. This went on for a couple minutes until they could hear their friend’s teasing outside the door.

 

“Fiiiine. We’re coming out.” El unlocked the door and walked past her friends. She put on her shoes at the door and put some gum in her bag that contained her bathing suit and a towel.

 

“Be home at 12, okay? The boys can sleep over but you know the rule, separate rooms.” Joyce told her even though she knew nobody would follow that rule. Eleven nodded and zipped up her bag.

 

“Well, are you guys coming?” She turned around to ask. They all followed her out the door to the car. Will was their designated driver for the night, but of course Joyce didn’t know that. Will told his mom he was going, but Will and Carter were gonna see a movie after they dropped their friends off, then pick them up later.

 

~

 

The group showed up at 9 o’clock exactly and the party was already in full blast. From what they could see, it wasn’t _all_ popular kids. Mike recognized some of the boys that were in his Honors Physics class and Dustin recognized some from A/V club. But, El also pointed out a ton of popular kids she recognized. Mariana and Kimberly immediately hit the dance floor. Bianca walked over to a group of kids who looked like they’d rather watch paint dry than be here and she fell into conversation with them fast. Mike was internally screaming because he hated parties in general.

 

“Hey Eleanor! Glad you could make it!” Some boy that El didn’t recognize thrust a drink into her hand. When he walked away, Mike took it from her and poured it into a plant. El looked at him with a confused daze.

 

“Believe me, you do not wanna drink that.” He told her as he pulled her toward a room with lots of light. Mike was praying it was the kitchen where they could get a drink that tasted fine.

 

~

 

El learned a lot of things that night, like nightswimming is much better than swimming in broad daylight.

 

“Come on MikeandEl!” Mariana yelled, pronouncing their names as one. She had already put on her swimsuit was dragging Lucas into the pool. He stripped down to his boxers and pulled her in. It was freezing in the chilly December wind but luckily the pool was heated. Most of the people had already had their fair share of pooltime, and it was empty for the time being.

 

“It’s cold as fuck out here.” Dustin yelled to Lucas. Kimberly groaned and did a perfect dive in, splashing Mariana and Lucas in the process. When she came up, she wiped her eyes and mascara and eyeliner went everywhere. Mariana cackled until Kimberly pointed out Mariana’s fail too.

 

“Come onnnnnnn, Dustin. You don’t want me freezing out here, all by myself, do you?” Kimberly shouted as she stifled a giggle. Dustin groaned and eventually went in. The pool was huge and Dustin kept pulling her under the water to kiss her.

 

Mike was waiting on the side of the pool for El to come outside. She hadn’t worn her bathing suit underneath her clothes like her friends had. He was getting cold in his jeans and t-shirt and longed to go into the heated pool.

 

When she walked out, Mike nearly fainted from her beauty. She was wearing a black one piece (very similar to her friends), but hers looked the best. She had the body to pull it off. Mike felt his face grow hot and walked over.

 

“I’m sorry I took forever.” She whispered. “Some guys kept talking to me and telling me how ‘hot’ I looked. It took a while to get away.” Mike internally rolled his eyes at the boys. They two of them went in the water. Eleven made it swirl all around them.

 

“Let’s play Marco Polo.” Kimberly suggested. Mike and Lucas groaned, Dustin was always the king of Marco Polo. Eleven gave her a confused look. Kimberly gasped.

 

“EL! Please tell me you know what that is?” Mariana shrieked. Eleven shook her head. “ _Who are ‘Marco’ and ‘Polo’?”_ She thought to herself. The boys began explaining it to her and the six of them played it. Every once in a while people would come out planning to go into the pool, but they left after they saw the six of them. Just as predicted, Dustin won. He ran around the shallow end with his arms up chanting.

 

“SEE? THESE EARS AREN’T JUST GOOD FOR A/V CLUB, THEY’RE GOOD FOR MARCO POLO! I AM A GOD!” He yelled. Mike punched him in the shoulder. Dustin glared at him and picked up Kimberly. She squealed for him to put her down, so he threw her. Everyone laughed. When Kimberly came back up she splashed him and it turned into a huge splashing war except for Mariana and El, who were trying to avoid the upcoming waves of water being flung toward them.

 

“Are you sixteen or six, sometimes you confuse me.” Mariana said to Lucas with a smirk. He gave her the finger and she laughed. Soon, Dustin looked at his watch and said that it was nearing 11:30 and they still needed to get dried off, dressed, and home before 12.

 

El shivered hard when she got out of the pool, much more than anyone else. She tried to pull on her towel but she was still freezing. Joyce said she had poor circulation. Mike came up to her and gave her his towel.

 

“Mike.” She whispered. “You’re gonna freeze to death.”

 

“My clothes are out here. I already put mine on. You have to walk all the way inside.” Mike told her as he put his towel around her shoulders. The girls ran inside to put back on their outfits while Dustin ran to find a phone to call Will. It was just Lucas and Mike outside, shivering in their wet clothes.

 

“Remember when we found her that night? She was outside for even longer in less clothes. Poor El.” Lucas commented. Mike nodded in agreement. That night felt like a decade ago, but it was only a little over four. El had changed so much since then.

 

“It’s a good thing we found her.” Mike added. He looked up at the stars and tried to find constellations. It was a very clear night, but Amy’s house had a ton of tress blocking their view.

 

“Hah, remember when we would sit outside on your roof and look at the stars and Dustin almost fell off trying to find The Big Dipper but he couldn’t see cause it was so cloudy?” Mike said. Lucas laughed. Dustin was afraid to go on the roof for months after that. The boys almost couldn’t get him back on it.

 

“And remember that time when Will was supposed to get snacks for the campaign but he picked up the wrong kind of Lays and Dustin nearly punched him in the face?” The two started cracking up. Dustin was finishing up homework, so they sent Will to get snacks, but he never usually got snacks so he didn’t know which kind, and he messed up Dustin’s favorite snack.

 

“Oh, oh! Remember when Will came back to life,” Lucas paused for a moment. They barely brought that up. “And Jennifer tried asking him out and he got so nervous cause he didn’t know how to say no and he threw up on her shoes? Man her mom was pissed. Heard she made Joyce pick out a new pair and she never did.” Dustin ran outside all of a sudden.

 

“Will’s gonna be here soon.” Dustin spoke. The boys stood up and went inside to wait for everyone to finish getting ready.

 

~

 

Will pulled into the driveway to pick them up at 11:45 sharp. He hickeys all over his neck. Carter had a permanent blush and some of his own, but not nearly as much as Will. Mike pointed to Will’s neck with a smirk. When Lucas and Dustin noticed they tried not to make a big deal but inside they were laughing because Will would get hell if his mom saw them (she was very anti-PDA and always swatted Mike and Eleven with newspaper if they kissed in front of her).

 

“Better get a scarf, Will.” Mike smirked. Will’s hands flew to his neck-as if he already didn’t know. Carter pressed a soft kiss to Will’s neck. Will blushed and gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were a faint white/

 

“I’ll give you one of mine.” Carter told Will, who shook his head.

 

“They make me feel like I’m being choked.” Will explained. He pretended not to hear Dustin whisper ‘he’d probably like Carter to choke him’.

 

“If you guys wanna make curfew you better get in the car now.” Will tried to sound stringent, but he would never be intimidating with his small frame and his 5’5 height. The group piled in the back two rows and shut the doors and they were off.

 

~

 

“How was it?” Joyce asked as they walked in the door. The six of them explained how much fun they had while Will and Carter were silent, as they did not go to the party, they went to the lookout and made out. Will’s coat was zipped up all the way and Carter had a scarf on his neck, looking a bit suspicious in the heated house.

 

“Boys, did you have fun at the party?” Will squeaked out a ‘yes’, but Carter, being the good liar he was, told her how much fun they had-making his story very similar to Mike’s. He hoped she wouldn’t notice.

 

“Okay. You guys better start getting ready for bed because I am _not_ getting up early to make breakfast.” Joyce walked out of the room and left them to converse. Will sighed with relief and unzipped his coat. But then she walked back in.

 

“Will? Is Jonathan-” She cut herself off when she saw her sons neck. Will’s face was as white as a sheet.

 

“I’m going to bed.” She walked out of the room. Will’s normal reaction would’ve been to cry, but instead he laughed. The group was shocked at his reaction.

 

“You know what? I don’t care what she thinks. Let’s play a game.” Will walked over to the closet and pulled out some board games and the eight of them sat on the living room floor. Joyce, being the heavy sleeper she was, didn’t even hear them and did not notice when Will snuck over some vodka. Eleven was sitting in Mike’s lap and kissing him frequently-being the lightweight she was. After a while, Lucas and Mariana snuck off to the bathroom to ‘brush their teeth’, but they were gone a lot longer than a few minutes.

 

“See, this is so much better than a silly party.” Carter exclaimed as he won Scrabble, their fifth board game of the night. Everyone responded in agreement. Ten minutes into Clue, Eleven fell asleep on Mike’s shoulder. He gave her a kiss on the forehead, then picked her up and laid her on the couch. A little after 2am, the rest of them started getting ready for bed, all of them squeezed on the floor of Joyce’s small living room. They were so grateful Hopper was away all weekend because if he witnessed this, he’d presume the biggest orgy of 16 year olds ever happened.

 

Needless to say, they all had a very good night.

**Author's Note:**

> I HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOYED <3 LEAVE A COMMENT
> 
> tumblr: Queen-of-the-otps


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